EFTM

Amazon to offer 24-hour delivery to Australia?

This quick turn around from the online retail giant could be a lot more real than you think after the Sydney Morning Herald revealed Amazon was looking to buy a warehouse in Australia.

When you shop on Amazon almost everything is cheaper. Thanks to the strong Australian dollar and the fact that Amazon buys in extreme bulk consumers willing to wait the week or more for delivery of their goods can walk away with up to 80 per cent savings on what they would have paid in Australia. Of course the savings differ considerably depending on product but even on the small goods level, such as CDs and DVDs, you often save a few dollars on Australian prices even when you factor in shipping.

For those that are impatient, your dreams could come true. Amazon looks like it is in the market to purchase a warehouse in Australia to store and ship goods from. The Sydney Morning Herald today reported, “It is understood representatives of the global giant are preparing to visit in coming months to tour prospective sites down the eastern seaboard with the potential to lease an existing property, or sign up as a pre-committed tenant for a greenfields property.”

It would be a massive boost for Australian consumers with the low prices now being potentially paired with same day or 24-hour delivery, much like Apple does in Australia. But there are two great unknowns. Firstly, what will this do to the retail sector in Australia? Bricks and mortar retailers are already struggling to make ends meet while online retail here cannot match the extreme bargains of the UK and America, largely because of the strength of the Australian dollar.

Furthermore, it is yet to be seen what this will mean for those products Amazon will not ship to Australia due to size or agreements with producers and suppliers. One thing is for sure, Australia doesn’t have anything local that would match the might of Amazon.